http://kotaku.com/look-away-dark-souls-fans-just-look-away-1761796922

This is the first I'm hearing of this - I haven't played it for myself but on its face this looks pretty gross. With the recent announcement of Gamestop publishing Insomniac's next game, Song of the Deep, is this a sign of where they may take other publishing deals?

I can't even play it. its region locked.

I would have thought they have more reliable controls. I guess not.

everyone, stay away from it.

Marketing is just the worst. Do they really think a bad mobile runner is going to get people to preorder Dark Souls 3? The amount of Gamestop branding is pretty hilarious, though.

Phone game, who cares. Best to ignore it altogether.

@cameron: I've sort of always wondered that, in general, about marketing stuff in this manner. It must work in some way or they wouldn't spend money doing it...right?

It got a good belly laugh out of me which is becoming a bit rare for me nowadays, you should watch the trailer if you haven't already btw.

Posting for convience:

Slashy Souls is like that fake video game placed in tv shows or movies when the budget doesn't allow you to license a real one

Maaaan it's bad

Wait... it says it's inspired by Dark Souls III, but it contains the boar miniboss, Smough, and Nito?

US-only at the moment which is a weird choice but I guess something to do with Gamestop. From watching the trailer it seems like the biggest mistake they made was making the attack animations really fast so they have no weight to them which is basically the opposite of the approach to combat in the souls games.

Death's Gambit proves that you can do Souls-ish combat in a 2D game. This game seems to more rely on brand-recognition. Hey the checkpoints are bonfires. Hey it's that armor from the box cover. Hey it is that boss from the opening cutscene. It's like the most hollow of Family Guy pop culture references, doesn't really have anything to actually say about it's subject matter.

EPIC 16-BIT GAMEPLAY

whatever that means

"RESERVE YOUR GRAVE TODAY"

I think I threw up a bit.

I've played it. It's okay but really if you want an endless runner play Canabalt and save yourself the trouble.

Fuck that game. I'm waiting on EITR. It's supposed to be like Dark Souls with viking lore.

It sucks that this game is what it is, because visually speaking it looks fantastic.

Its a free thing. Is it really worth getting anyone's feathers ruffled over this?

My favourite bit is "NO INSTRUCTIONS JUST DEATH" which somehow manages to distill the design philosophy of Dark Souls into...I'm not sure. It's like having Dark Souls described to you by your 11-year-old cousin.

Yes because Gamespot talked about it and reviewed it.

I really don't care about it. At least Lords of the fallen didn't have the audacity to try and sell itself on being a Dark Souls clone. Not that I recall anyway.

It doesn't matter. It's not a game for me so I don't care about it.

Destructoid gave it a 1.0

On the Super Mario World scale, right?

This is one of the weirdest things I have ever seen. "Inspired by Dark Souls III" then cut to "pre-order Dark Souls III!" ???

^^^^^^^^^^

I don't understand why everyone is getting so upset about this. It's whatever.

Slashy Souls eh?

Crossy Roads

Shooty Skies

If only they managed to give it the same voxely look, people might be tricked.

Mobile gaming has literally become randomly generated.

Having downloaded it this morning...boy it's a mess. I'm very tolerant when it comes to games (I like pretty much everything) and this "2D runner" is one hell of a flop. Nothing about it feels good.

^^^^^^^^^^

I don't understand why everyone is getting so upset about this. It's whatever.

Weird place to say this, no? I mean, everyone in this thread is just either making jokes or sharing their surprise. With better (licensed) games on mobile devices like Fallout Shelter, Pokemon Shuffle, MKX, etc. (your subjective opinion applies obviously to it's quality) it's quite baffling that such a muddy, uninspired mess was created to "promote" their game. My personal experience is that, as a fan of the Souls series, I expected something more; or at least something more fleshed out. It shouldn't surprise anyone that fans of any franchise will be baffled at a release that is sub-par or plain bad. When, as a fan, you see "Dark Souls III..." you want to get excited. You want to experience something that comes from a recognized brand. So, when they decide to make something that is even worse than other souless (tee hee) games on the mobile market, it's more than acceptable that people act confused.

Its a playable banner add. I am also a fan of the Souls games and I am baffled that people are reviewing and writing articles about this at all.

Yep, I'm not upset it's just really strange. Maybe this happens more often than I realize?

@71ranchero: in a very minor way it does dilute the brand name but you're right in that it's nothing really worth talking about.

i actually like seeing bandai do a bit more with the series' name, but the comic coming out later seems infinitely more compelling than this.

Yeah, no thanks